JANA HOCKING on Vanderpump Rules scandal: Why your best mate is going to cheat with your boyfriend

Take a good look around your friend group… is there that one friend who laughs just a little too hard at your partner’s jokes? Ever caught her looking at him a little too long? Ever recognized a shared inside joke they have or caught a hint of flirting.

I’m telling you now… it’s not the sexy secretary at work you should be keeping an eye on, it’s your best friend!

Believe me, I speak from experience and I’ve been the victim and (shamefully) the bad guy in this scenario.

See, I’m a huge flirt. I can’t help it, seriously – I’d flirt with a chair if it allowed me. It’s just in my DNA. The problem with being a flirt by nature is that it can get you into awkward situations. So I recognize how some friendship groups can get in trouble when a flirt with a partner meets a flirt with a partner. I don’t excuse it, but I can see how it happens.

Last week, Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix (right) discovered her boyfriend Tom Sandoval’s affair when she found an intimate FaceTime video on Tom’s phone between him and boyfriend Raquel Leviss, leading the two to split on March 3.

And confess, most of us fellow flirters will do it innocently all day, like with the person making our coffee, or the man at the bar, but we justify it by thinking hard, it doesn’t really matter, because I’m never gonna see them again. But what happens when that flirting reaches your friend group? From my experience it is very dangerous to flirt with someone who is going to see you quite regularly and intimately.

It starts out as a cheeky fling at a friend’s barbecue, but then it happens again at a birthday party, and before you know it, you’ve gone out with your bestie and her partner for a drunken dinner and are exchanging misty looks from the chardonnay bottle.

We see it play out over and over again. I had a friend who found out her husband was cheating on her best friend when he forgot they set up the baby monitor in their kitchen, and he took the bestie to the nursery for a heavy kissing session. Yep, all that groaning, moaning and heavy breathing was broadcast straight to the kitchen where both of their significant others were sitting. idiots.

An insider close to Leviss (pictured) said, “Raquel has left Los Angeles and gone home to be with her family. She knows she hurt Ariana but doesn’t know how to say sorry”

“Viewers treat it like the biggest scandal in the world, but take a good look into your own friendship circle and I think you’ll find it’s played out in some form in your own life,” says Jana.

These friendship gatherings are all designed to bond. The lunches, the family outings, the birthday parties. Add a little booze to the situation and an innocent bit of accidental flirting can lead to a saucy fling and major heartbreak before you even say “oopsy daisy!” can mumble.

We currently see this scenario playing out on the Vanderpump rules. In case you’re not an avid watcher like me, there’s a couple named Tom and Ariane, who have been dating for 10 years, but a recent episode revealed that Ariane found a raunchy video of Tom with her BEST FRIEND (!! !) Raquel getting up for all sorts of sexiness.

Viewers treat it as the biggest scandal in the world, but take a good look into your own friendship circle and I think you’ll find it played out in some form in your own life.

I once dated a really naughty guy who was in weekend detention (aka jail). I was in college and the campus was two hours away, which meant I couldn’t pick him up every Sunday when he was released. (I know, romantic anyway!).

The Vanderpump Rules Cheating Scandal: How It Played Out

It was revealed that castmates Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss reportedly had a “full-on affair” for months, leading up to his split from Ariana Madix, Raquel’s close friend.

The cheating scandal erupted when Sandoval and Ariana broke up after it emerged he was dating Raquel, DailyMail.com has confirmed.

Leviss and Sandoval have been “communicating inappropriately for months,” according to a source who spoke to Page Six, and now want to “be together.”

Madix – who dated Sandoval for nine years – is said to have learned of the alleged cheating with Leviss on Wednesday, ending their nine-year romance soon after.

Split: Last week it was revealed that Sandoval and Leviss reportedly had a “full-on affair” for months, leading up to his divorce from Madix; Sandoval and Madix pictured February 2023

A source also told Page Six that Sandoval and Leviss had been planning to inform Madix about the affair for weeks.

However, they waited so long that Madix discovered their secret herself on Wednesday night when she saw Leviss’ texts on Sandoval’s phone.

Madix unfollowed Sandoval and Leviss on Instagram after learning about their months-long affair. She also unfollowed Schwartz, who reportedly found out his boyfriend was cheating “a month ago.”

Sandoval, who is also a business partner of Schwartz, wrote on his Instagram that his costar only learned of his infidelity “very recently” and “didn’t approve” of his actions.

Messy: Madix unfollowed Sandoval and Leviss followed the news about the affair on Instagram. She also unfollowed Schwartz, who reportedly learned about it “a month ago”; Leviss suggested 2022

Anyway, then one of our mutual friends had a car and offered to give him a ride. Something deep inside of me thought this was a bit squishy, ​​I mean she must have better things to do with her time than pick it up every Sunday, but I ignored the red flag and let it play. A few months later, after going on intimate car rides with him on a regular basis, another friend called to say she had seen them making out in a booth at McDonald’s.

Well, blow me over with a feather! I was heartbroken, but deep down I wasn’t surprised. Why, because your gut is never wrong! I had seen their slow attraction build. The inside jokes, the lustful looks. These car rides had brought them close and in a nudie rudie way I wasn’t happy about it!

Now you may think this is a one-time event that happens very rarely, but according to research from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Americans who admit to having extramarital sex are most likely to be cheating with a close friend.

Yes! Just over half (53.5 percent) of those who reported extramarital sex said they had been unfaithful with someone they knew well, such as a close friend. The reasoning behind this high statistic was that the two brutal cheaters had already built up inherent qualities with each other, including emotional intimacy, closeness, friendship, and support.

There you go. If you think your partner is getting a little too close with your bestie, stay alert. It’s a jungle out there! Side note: Is no one loyal anymore?